Looking for really fine cables at really low price

A comment from Jeff Day Blog from European collegue Siedy Abee regarding WE16ga speaker wire and cables in general; at any rate something to think about:

"I promised you to write an article about the wonderful nice sounding SPEC amp at my home. Due to the hectic time at my work and private live did not found the right time to make a start with the article. On short terms I will do. I can tell that I will put some extra news in it. My friend Piet (www.audiotweaks.nl) has been recently been blown away by the Harbeth super hl5 plus!

I was hesitating a long time to write a bit about the wonderful and truly REAL sounding Western Electric WE16GA cables. I heard them at Piets place. Mr Yazaki-san did send him some meters.

A lot of people are wondering why this cable sounds so real and humanlike. Most people believes that the secret of the cables lies in the copper-tin inner wires. This is partly true. The real secret is hidden in the outer side of the cable! This is a cable that is NOT isolated by a chemical polluted isolation mantel. The materials they use is a type of cotton that is very friendly for the sound! This material does not destroy the sound. A lot of most common used isolation stuff is degrading the sound. Most people do think that the signal goes THROUGH the cable. This is partly true. Most of the signal goes his way OUTSIDE the cable. How more natural the used isolation material (cotton or silk) is (and NON chemical polluted) how better the cable can transport the real music.

My advice is not to isolate the cable with an outer shield. This wil have a negative influence on the sound! Be sure. If you cable is picking up some hum than you can better twist in more heavily. Please twist it right handed.

I looked at your interlink, Jeff. I saw that you used some plastic tape. Please, put this of your cable and have a listen! Or change it by tape made from cotton.

Please, check also if jou twisted the cable to the RIGHT hand site. If not than do so.

Perhaps some people are amazed about the way I explain why this cable sounds so nice. In the last year I learned a lot from my friend Jan Hut about materials who have a positive influence on the sound and in opposite way how materials (plastics, teflon) can destroy the sound. When I heard an interlink made with this approach I was positively blown away.

I would say Jeff, give it a try."

So, Abee recommends no shielding.

I wonder what Almarg thinks?

I wonder what "twisting the cable right-handed" means (per Siedy comment above). Wouldn't this change depending on which way you were looking at the cable?

Salectric, I thought the very same thing.

Mikirob, that poster on Jeff's site missed the fact that the WE wire does indeed have a rubber like shield in addition to the natural fibers. The rubber like material is actually on the wire before the cloth.

We need you almarg!

Thanks, guys. Regarding twisting the cable right-handed, I suspect that the person who was quoted was vaguely thinking of what is known as the "right-hand rule", which describes the relation between the direction of the magnetic field surrounding a conductor and the direction of the current flowing in the conductor which produces that field. But I agree with Salectric and Bill, and I don't see that as having any relevance to a twisted pair interconnect. And IMO proving otherwise would require, as a minimum, comparing two cables that are identical except for which hand was used to twist them, under equal conditions of system warmup, AC line voltage and noise conditions, and cable breakin. And preferably when connecting a variety of components. I doubt anyone has done that.

Regarding shielding, there are of course many variables that can affect its consequences, involving the designs of the components that are being connected as well as the characteristics of the cable. So I would second the comment by Charles in his most recent post, to the effect that listening in a given system is the only way to determine which is preferable. My instinctive guess, though, would be that more often than not a shielded cable will tend to provide results that are a bit more accurate (which is not to say that those results would necessarily be subjectively preferable).

Regarding the frequently claimed tendency of unshielded cables to sound more open, I think that is likely to often be the case. Which, however, may or may not mean that the cable is behaving in a more accurate manner. If the component driving the cable has a high output impedance, and especially if the length of the cable is also long, the reduction in cable capacitance that probably results from eliminating the shield may improve high frequency extension and thereby result in a more open (and accurate) sound. But in many cases increased pickup of RFI or other high frequency noise, or possible increases in ground loop-related high frequency noise (see the next paragraph, keeping in mind that ground loop issues can result in high frequency noise as well as low frequency hum), could create the subjective impression of a more open sound, while at the same time being less true to the signal source. I've seen it said a number of times over the years that low level high frequency noise can contribute to a subjective perception of increased ambience, which makes sense to me. Also, low level noise at frequencies that are too high to hear directly can conceivably have similar consequences, by intermodulating with signal in the component circuitry and thereby affecting audible frequencies.

Regarding Bill's mention of a hum that went away with his 845 amp when a shielded Belden cable was used, if the shield was connected at both ends, and assuming that an unbalanced connection was involved, my guess is that the hum had been caused by a ground loop issue between the amp and the component that was driving it. Depending on the designs of the specific components, ground loop susceptibility can be affected by the resistance of the return conductor in the cable which connects them. A shield can be expected to generally have a lower resistance than a wire of moderate gauge.

Regarding natural vs. artificial materials, it stands to reason that the characteristics of the insulating materials surrounding a conductor can affect the sonics of a cable in various ways. But I would be (very) hesitant to draw any general conclusions about natural vs. artificial without extensive and carefully controlled comparisons.

In any event, enjoy! Best regards,
-- Al